Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square (New York City, New York)

 hotel, 2016_construction

www.riu.com/en/hotel/usa/new-york/hotel-riu-plaza-new-y...

324-foot, 29-story modernist hotel completed in 2016. Designed by Berg & Moss, the building is roughly L-shaped. The main entrance is on 46th Street, through a low, 2-story glass-enclosed lobby space. A wide glass canopy covers a large section of the ground floor in front of the glass wall, above the main doors. Atop the edge of the canopy are metal letters reading "RUI PLAZA NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE HOTEL". A terrace on top of the glass section is enclosed by a glass railing. The middle section is framed by two end pavilions clad in dark-grey metal panels above a black granite water table. The western one is four floors tall, with a garage door at the ground floor, flanked by a metal service door and a glass secondary door. The upper floors have a whimsical pattern of recessed, square windows in various sizes. The east-facing wall of this pavilion, overlooking the terrace in the center, has the same type of square windows. The eastern pavilion rises seven floors, also clad in grey metal panels with a random pattern of various recessed square windows. The west-facing wall of this pavilion has no windows. The ground floor here has large plate-glass show-windows along the avenue. About halfway along the east facade, the base drops down to a 1-story section at the north half, with the storefront windows continuing to the north end. There are a few windows on the north-facing elevation of the south part of the base.

The main tower is set back from the dark-grey base pavilions and glass entry area, clad in lighter-colored grey metal panels and glass. At the southeast corner, a section that is slightly less set-back on the south elevation and more set back on the east elevation lacks the metal spandrels panels, and instead has a glass curtain wall with silver metal divisions between floors. The north half of the east facade along the avenue has six bays of windows, and the west part of the south facade has also has six bays; the four easternmost of these bays are set farther back than the southeast corner section, but not as far back as the two western bays; these four bays set all the way back to the rest of the tower above the 24th floor. The main, metal-clad tower portions end at a lower roof line at the 27th floor, while the glass corner section extends two floors higher, where the east- and south-facing sides have 2-story recessed squares of green glass featuring "RIU" in red letters.

The west elevation is faced in plain, grey-painted, pre-cast concrete, with a single bay of windows running up the center of the west wing; the west-facing elevation of the north wing has two bays of single-windows, and a bay of double-windows. The north elevation is also clad in grey pre-cast concrete, with the west wing having six bays of single-windows, and the north wing having a single bay of windows running up its north face.

The hotel contains 600 guest rooms. The glass-clad lobby area is also occupied by Fashion Bar Restaurant, and Capital Grab & Go coffee shop.